Methodology
Who runs this site
This comparison is maintained by Plugixa, the company that makes Plugixa Recipe, one of the plugins compared. That is a conflict of interest, and this page explains what we do about it.
Every page carries a notice saying who maintains the site. Our plugin is marked in the tables. It is listed first in a ranking only where the checked data supports that, and its page lists its weaknesses in the same way as every other plugin's.
Where the values come from
For competing plugins, each value comes from the vendor's own material, meaning its wordpress.org listing, its feature pages and its pricing page. Each checked value in a table links to the page it was taken from.
For Plugixa Recipe, values come from reading the plugin's source code. We applied the same definitions, which is why several features are marked "No" or "Partial" even though the plugin stores related data.
Install counts, ratings, version numbers and update dates are read from the public wordpress.org plugin API by a script, not typed in by hand.
What the labels mean
"Yes" means the plugin does what the feature definition says. "Partial" means it does part of it, and a note says what is missing. "No" means it does not. "Not checked" means we could not confirm the value from the vendor's own pages, so we make no claim.
"Free" means the feature is in the version on wordpress.org. "Paid" names the lowest tier that includes it, as far as the vendor states.
"Not checked" is not a polite "No". Many of those features probably exist. We would sooner leave a gap than guess.
What we did not do
We did not install and test every plugin by hand, and we did not run speed tests. Values reflect what vendors say about their own products.
There is no overall score and no star rating from us. The ratings shown are the public wordpress.org ratings, with the number of ratings beside them.
Prices are the ones shown on the day we checked. Where a vendor showed a promotional price, we give the regular price too.
How rankings and picks are decided
Best-of pages rank plugins for one stated need. Each pick has a reason that can be checked against the feature table.
We look at what the free version includes, the price per site, how recently the plugin was updated, and its public rating and install count.
Corrections
If a value is wrong or out of date, open an issue on the GitHub repository with a link to the vendor page that shows the correct value. Vendors are welcome to do this for their own plugins.
Data and text are published under CC BY 4.0, so you may reuse them with attribution.
Feature definitions
Structured data
- Recipe schema (JSON-LD)
- Outputs Recipe structured data as JSON-LD, the format Google recommends for recipe rich results.
- Guided Recipes markup
- Marks each step so the recipe is eligible for step-by-step guidance on smart displays and Google Assistant.
Editors and placement
- Block editor (Gutenberg)
- Has its own block for adding a recipe in the WordPress block editor.
- Classic Editor
- Recipes can be added to posts from the Classic Editor.
- Elementor
- Has its own Elementor widget.
- Shortcode
- A shortcode displays a recipe or a recipe listing anywhere shortcodes run.
- Recipe card inside a post
- A full recipe card can be placed inside a normal blog post, under your own writing.
- Standalone recipe pages
- Each recipe gets its own page and URL, separate from blog posts.
Design
- Templates and layouts
- How many recipe designs come with the plugin.
- Template editor
- A visual tool for changing the structure of a recipe template, beyond colours.
Ingredients
- Ingredient groups
- Ingredients can be split under headings such as "For the sauce".
- Adjustable servings
- Readers change the number of servings and the quantities recalculate.
- Unit conversion
- Readers switch between US and metric units on the recipe.
- Ingredient links
- Ingredients can link out, for example to an affiliate product.
- Equipment list
- A section listing the tools a recipe needs, shown to readers.
Instructions
- Step photos
- A photo or video can be attached to an individual step.
- Timers
- Times in the instructions become timers the reader can start.
Nutrition
- Nutrition label
- Nutrition values are entered by hand and shown as a nutrition facts label.
- Automatic nutrition calculation
- Nutrition values are calculated from the ingredient list using a food database.
Reader tools
- Star ratings
- Readers can rate a recipe out of five stars.
- Print view
- A print button opens a clean, printable version of the recipe.
- Jump to recipe
- A button at the top of a post scrolls straight to the recipe card.
- Cook mode
- A switch keeps the reader's screen awake while cooking.
- Saved recipes
- Readers can save recipes and find them again later.
- Meal planner and shopping list
- Readers build a meal plan or shopping list from recipes on the site.
Building a recipe site
- Recipe index and search
- Listing pages where visitors browse, filter and search all recipes.
- Visitor-submitted recipes
- Visitors send in recipes through a form on the site, for you to moderate.
- WPML or Polylang support
- Declares compatibility with a multilingual plugin so recipes can be translated.
Migration and extras
- Importers
- Which other recipe plugins it can import recipes from.
- AI recipe drafting
- Generates a recipe draft with an AI model.